“A group of scientists are experimenting with the worst smells imaginable to help the military develop an “odor bomb” so foul it could clear crowds,” according to this AP report. `What they would be interested in is something to keep people out of certain areas,’ said Pamela Dalton, a researcher at the Philadelphia-based Monell Chemical Senses Center. `We are going for odors that every culture has experienced and the experience

From EETimes: Radio-frequency identification chips, which have found a home in applications ranging from toll road passes to smart retail shelves, may be close to taking up residence in the human body. A Florida-based company has introduced a passive RFID chip that is compatible with human tissue, and the developer is proposing the chip for use on implantable pacemakers, defibrillators and artificial joints. The company, Applied Digital Solutions (Palm Beach,

Jay Nordlinger’s latest “Impromptus” column in The National Review is chock full of great stuff, including this bit on Helen Thomas: I

“Remember when we used to ‘degrade’ our enemies? Now we kill them,” Gloria Borger muses in this month’s U.S. News and World Report. In her essay, “In praise of straight talk,” Borger writes: We’re into the simple truth, which is not a bad thing — particularly for Bush, who has never been known for his ornate communication skills. Maybe Bush is benefiting once again from low expectations. Or maybe, offers

“The cleanup of the World Trade Center site is on pace to be finished by June, the New York Times reported, citing officials working on the cleanup.” The cleanup is progressing faster than city officials and real estate developers expected, and may create pressure to come up with a concrete redevelopment plan, the paper said. Public hearings on the development of the site could begin within six weeks, the paper

The Telegraph is reporting that Iraq may have acquired “a radar system capable of detecting America’s multi-billion-pound fleet of stealth bombers. The radar is believed to be the same Czech-built type used by Serb forces to shoot down a US F117 Nighthawk stealth bomber and seriously damage another during the war in Kosovo in 1999,” the story reports: US intelligence chiefs believe that Iraqi generals attempted to buy a system

The Village Voice is reporting (via Interfax) that “More than half of Russian citizens (55.1%), if offered a choice, prefer life before the reform launched in 1991 to their present-day life.” Less than one third of those polled (32.6%) prefer today’s life, and 12.3% of the respondents were undecided. The poll of 2,000 respondents was conducted by the ROMIR-Gallup International independent opinion research group on New Year’s Eve.

Three Saudi men had their heads chopped off Tuesday, the AP reports. According to the Saudi Interior Ministry, the punishment was levied against the men for committing acts of sodomy and “‘seducing young men.’” Ali bin Hatan bin Saad, Muhammad bin Suleiman bin Muhammad and Muhammad bin Khalil bin Abdullah were executed in the southwestern mountain resort city of Abha in Asir province, according to the statement carried by the

“A national Roman Catholic group is protesting an exhibit at Copia, the Napa Valley’s new food, wine, and arts museum, that includes figurines of the pope and several nuns defecating,” the Los Angeles Times is reporting. The work in question, by Spanish artist Antoni Miralda, is titled “Active Ingredients,” and also “displays miniature figures of Santa Claus and Fidel Castro in similar poses.” ‘These figurines symbolize the cycle of eating

U.S. and British intelligence officials believe that failed shoe bomber “Richard Reid” was “a ‘foot soldier’ [oh, the irony — ed.] sent to check the destructive power of shoe bombs against civilian targets,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports. “Reid” was packing a bomb blended from “Mother of Satan” (triacetone triperoxide) and PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate, which can be ignited with a normal cigarette lighter), intelligence sources report — suggesting that the